“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
There is something that just hits me so deeply in this reading – in this sentence. The people of Israel have been sent into exile. Forced through military power – by God’s design – away from all that they know and love. And they are told to create a home there and to seek the welfare of the city. To do good things that benefits the whole of the place they now live because in doing that, they will receive goodness.
To me, this says that no matter the circumstances, we care for what is around us. We care for the community, for the people, for other peoples children, for the fields and the streams and the buildings, and we will receive care. This is about connection and community and care for creation and one another, building up and supporting all of the aspects of a community because though that connection the people will also be taken care of. It’s God teaching God’s people that community care works no matter where you are, that when we care for others we are cared for and it’s a whole reciprocal magic that happens.
Then we have this story from Luke of the Samaritan who returns to give thanks to Jesus. Some tend to think of this as a story of faith and in a way it is, because all of the people who have been stricken with disease have enough faith to trust Jesus’ words. They all head off to their priests, which demonstrates that they believe they will be healed.
This story is also another story about how those who are seen as the least in society are always the ones who do the most. Another story in which Jesus upends the expectations of the listeners by lifting up the dirty, disliked Samaritans as the ones doing the right thing.
But what it also is is a story of profound gratitude.
It’s not just that the Samaritan is the only one who returns to say thanks, it is also that, in doing so, he is making a sacrifice. Having a skin disease (what is often called leprosy in scripture can refer to a number of different skin diseases) has separated him from family and community. He has, in a way, been in jail – institutionalized and kept away from others. He has to be declared clean by the priest because he can be united with loved ones and the wider community and yet.. And yet he puts that all on hold just so he can go and thank God for what God has done.
What do these stories have in common?
They are both stories of stewardship.
When I was a kid, my dad gave the annual stewardship/temple talk. All 6 foot, two inches, I don’t know how many pounds but a big guy, with his double base voice and lawyer ways, would get up in front of the congregation and talk about how much we needed money. How we were broke and if we wanted to keep going, the people had to pony up.
I don’t clearly remember any of these moments, but I have a feeling they felt like mob debt shakedowns than they should have.
And, unfortunately, this has been the way in the church for a long time, and apparently it worked for a long time because churches thrived while giving this message. There were different social pressures, and for so much of human history the church was the main source of charity to the surrounding neighborhood. Now there are SO MANY causes and needs pulling at our hearts and bank accounts.
But the thing is giving money to the church is not what stewardship is.
Stewardship is how do we seek the welfare of the community around us (however we view that), how do we care for all that we have been given, and how to we give thanks to God for all God has given us.
How do we seek the welfare of our community – as individuals and as a congregation? What resources do we have to share, what resources do we need? What does our community need? What does our community have to give? Where do those things meet?
What gifts have I, have you, have we been given and how do we use them to the glory of God?
Where in our lives are we willing, like the Samaritan who turned around to give thanks, to sacrifice something in order to give thanks to God? What does that thanks look like?
This can be really overwhelming when we consider our wider community, our nation and the world, especially now where there is so much need, so much to do, and so many of us have little time, and a lot of financial stress. There is need everywhere, and we are aware of it in a way previous generations simply weren’t.
One of the best pieces of advice I have heard is pick one or two things you really care about and act in those arenas. Ask what you have to share and what the arena in which you want to share those gifts needs. Do you have have more time, or more money? What does the organization or arena need? How can the gifts God has given you and the resources with which you have been blessed best be used in that area? What gifts are you currently not using that might benefit others?
How can we seek the welfare of this community as Abiding Savior Lutheran Church? What does Abiding Savior have that we can share with others? How can we seek the welfare of the surrounding area with those gifts?
And, finally, how can we seek the welfare of this community? Of Abiding Savior? What do you have to share?
What does Abiding Savior need not to just survive, but thrive? How can we give to Abiding Savior so that, as a community, we can seek the welfare of the community around us? How can we give to this community that has given to us? How can we build the community and the people that make us this community up so that we can all rely on each other, so that we all benefit from what we have here? What are we doing that works, and what isn’t working?
So many of you give so much already, and for that, thank you. Thank you for cleaning and preparing and praying and caring. This community is here because of all that you do.
These questions of how and how much we can each give are going to be really important over the coming months. If you want to seek the welfare of Abiding Savor, it’s going to take some giving and some sacrifice. It’s going to take time given to long conversations about the future of this place, to the upkeep of the land and building, to the preparation of worship, to meetings, to the tending of relationships. It’s going to take your gifts – you gifts of organizing or energizing, teaching or leading, singing and praying. It’s going to probably take doing some annoying and boring things, and some amazing, delightful, and enlightening things. And it is going to take money. Money not only to pay for the building and bulletins, for myself and Aaron, but financial gifts to help us, as a community, care for the welfare of the city around us.
Seeking the welfare of Abiding Savior means we might have to be a little uncomfortable. We might have to give more time or money, prayer or gifts than we have had to in the past. We might have to be a little more extroverted to build relationships with people here and people in the wider community, inviting them in. We might have to turn around and come back to Jesus again and again, forsaking some other things in the meantime.
But we do this because of love.
We give to the world because of the love God has given us, because of the opportunities we have had, because of the love that surrounds us in our lives. And we give to this community because of what this community has given us. Because of the support we have received, because of the way the people here have lifted up our faith, have stood with us through hard times, because it is a resource and a gift.
Over the next few weeks, take some time to think about what you have – gifts, time, talents, finances – and what you are able to give. What are your values, what are the most important places to give what you have, what can you do to seek the welfare of your communities and how can you give thanks to God. What are you willing and able to forgo maybe a little of? Where is your volunteering or donations needed? And what will you give for the welfare of this place, that you might find your welfare here too?
Seek the welfare of the city, or your community, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.
Amen
